Pakistan Removed Ban on YouTube
Some pages, other websites still blocked LAHORE, PAKISTAN - Thurs. May 27
Some pages, other websites still blocked LAHORE, PAKISTAN - Thurs. May 27
Judge in Lahore, Pakistan has allowed some access to the video sharing website, YouTube.com. Some pages and certain other sites still remain "blocked" due to un-Islamic content, according to officials here.
| Some pages and certain other sites still remain "blocked" due to un-Ilsamic content, according to officials here. Khurram Mehran for PTA (Pakistan's regulartory agency for telecommunications) said, "YouTube was recently unblocked. However, links to other sacrilegious content will remain inaccessible." ISPAK (Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan) confirmed the over all ban on YouTube had, in fact, has been now removed. "They issued orders last night, then they issued list of certain URLs that should be blocked while the rest of the site will remain open," said Wahaj us-Siraj. "There are 200-plus particular links or URLs of YouTube that need to be blocked," he said. Internet users in Pakistan are now able to access YouTube for the first time since the entire website was banned last Thursday in the wake of public outrage about caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that first appeared on Facebook. A private Facebook user organised an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" competition to promote "freedom of expression", which sparked a major backlash among Islamic activists in the conservative Muslim country. Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the row sparked comparison with protests across the Muslim world over the publication of satirical cartoons of Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006. Several thousand Pakistanis took to the streets at the behest of religious groups to protest, but demonstrations have been peaceful. In the wake of the controversy, the PTA banned access to Facebook, YouTube, restricted access to Wikipedia and around 800 links, over what it called "growing sacrilegious content" on the Internet. A court in the eastern city of Lahore ordered the block on Facebook until at least May 31, when it is scheduled to hear a petition from Islamic lawyers. But although the caricatures were universally condemned in Pakistan, members of the Internet-literate urban elite criticised the blanket ban on websites. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Wednesday that pages containing blasphemous material would remain blocked but the ban on popular sites including Facebook and YouTube would be lifted in the next few days. "We discussed this matter in the cabinet meeting today. I told my colleagues that blocking the websites was not the right thing," Malik told AFP. "I said that only particular pages that contain blasphemous material should be blocked, not the entire website," said Malik. The government said the cabinet "strongly condemned" the sketches of Prophet Mohammed and ordered the information technology ministry "to ensure that such blasphemous material is not allowed to appear on the Internet in Pakistan." More about Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him? www.ProphetOfIslam.com [Please give us your comments and ask others to read these stories - online, inshallah] |
Comments
i don't know either facebook is a bad network or not...cause i find it interesting when i see so many Muslims striving hard to be devoted Muslims and spreading the word. youtube is a good site and that is really a good plan to restrict harmful links that may be a cause of hurting Muslims and the rest.
well, i was in favour of banning the face book but not of you tube atleast, so im happy that ban on you tube is taken, it depends on people that which type of videos they saw on you tube.
ur sis in islam!!
RSS feed for comments to this post